“I hope you don’t resent.…” That’s what my boss said to me in the course of the discussion in which I was fired while still new on the job. She agreed that my performance had clearly been affected by my pregnancy. Positive feedback had gone down during my second trimester but up when I hit […]
Career and Kinder: The Choices We Make, the Challenges We Face Read More »
For the last 75 years or so, Jewish feminists all over the world have successfully enlisted the help of legislatures and secular courts to ameliorate the “plight of the agunah”—the problem of Jewish women held in marital captivity by husbands who refuse to give them a religious divorce (a get). This maneuver has resulted in
The Problem of the Agunah: From Religious Right to Civil Wrong Read More »
One of the greatest obstacles to getting relief for agunot in civil courts is the principle of separation of state and religion ensconced in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Under this principle, which prohibits government-sponsored establishment of religion, U.S. courts will not get involved in resolving disputes that are
Coercive Control: Defining Get Abuse in Secular Legal Terms Read More »
As a community, we have made some significant advances over the last decade in the area of equal access and membership for people with disabilities, but much work remains to be done. This is true both in terms of our institutions—our synagogues, schools, and camps—and in the area of halakhah. I would divide the halakhic
Redefining Categories and Acts: The Next Frontier in Disabilities Halakhah Read More »
